Read Online Fire at Dawn: The Firefighters of Darling Bay 2 by Lila Ashe - Free Book Online Page B

the fridge. What should I do about this friggin’ tie?”
    Lexie smiled, trying her best to make it a normal one. “Take it off. You don’t need it.” He didn’t. He looked amazing as he was, in the light blue button-down shirt with thin gray pinstripes. He wore dark gray pants with the creases still in them. “You look great.”
    His smoky gaze met hers again. If he did that much more, she’d have to rethink this whole double date thing. How could she flirt with someone else when her friend—her best friend—was pinning her down with that oddly hot stare?
    She held up the knife and pointed the tip at him. “Cut it out, dude.”
    “What?” Coin blinked, as if waking up.
    “You’re being weird and I don’t like it.”
    “I’m not doing anything.”
    “You’re looking at me funny.”
    “Like how?”
    She drew a circle in the air with the knife. Honesty was always best. “Like my dress is too low. It’s kind of freaking me out.” She glanced down. “Oh, dang, is it too low?”
    Coin cleared his throat and didn’t say anything.
    She tugged at the vee of the dress. “Get me a safety pin.”
    “No.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Your dress is fine.”
    “You’ve seen it a million times,” Lexie said. “Why are you staring at me like that?”
    Coin seemed to shake himself. “Sorry. Maybe I’m nervous.”
    “No. Get over that. Right now.” She tapped the cutting board with the knife. “And please give me the mint from that bag. I have things to chop.” He didn’t get to be nervous. She wouldn’t let him. “It’s going to be a great night. I will it to be a great night.”
     
     

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
     
    It was a terrible night.
    Ginger arrived first. She was as beautiful as her picture had been, like someone from a magazine plopped down in his house. She adored her job, in which she took care of a woman with late-stage cancer, and spoke in glowing terms of her family. Her laugh sounded like bells.
    Coin loathed her. He preferred people he understood. People who had things wrong with them, who were self-conscious and made mistakes. Perfect people couldn’t be trusted.
    Within minutes of stepping through the door, Ginger was in the kitchen, dancing around Lexie like they’d been friends for years, mixing a drink that combined sweet vermouth with mint and bourbon. How did women do that? How did they become best friends within seconds, smiling and laughing with each other as if they were on a date with each other?
    Well, shoot. He supposed they kind of were. After all, Lexie had chosen her, right? It was Lexie who’d done the corresponding, who’d sent that first email.
    Thomas arrived next. He was tall and looked like some Clark Kent wannabe, all the way down to the chunky, hipster glasses. Sure, Coin’s clothes were good, too, as nice as this guy’s, but he knew he didn’t look comfortable in them. Coin felt best when he was in a firehouse T-shirt and cargo pants, clothes that had been washed a million times and gave comfortably when he moved. The shirt he wore tonight was so crisp he could hear it whooshing as he moved his arm to shake Thomas’s hand.
    “Come on in. I’m Coin. Should we call you Tom?”
    “Thomas, actually,” he said smoothly. “I’ve never liked Tom.”
    Neither did Coin.
    In the kitchen, the women greeted him with a handshake, but in the case of both of them, Thomas followed up the handshake with a kiss on the cheek. It was smooth. Both women smiled.
    Great. Now Lexie had kissed both of them on the cheek tonight. And she was only on a date with one of them.
    “Get you a beer, Thomas?” Coin gestured with his own bottle.
    “Actually, Lexie mentioned that we’d be eating Thai, so I brought a bottle of white, a nice vintage I picked up the last time I was driving through Napa. My friend owns the winery, and this is a special reserve. They only bottled a hundred of these, and I think the ladies might enjoy it.” Thomas gave Lexie a toothy smile. “May I open it and